The Korea Times reports that South Korea has extended its term of copyright as required by its Free Trade Agreement with the United States. The government has pledged to allocate 160 billion won for the publishing industry to deal with the increased costs associated with the extension.
The Cost of Copyright Term Extension
December 19, 2007
Share this post
One Comment

Law Bytes
Episode 278: Ben Waldman on Gander Social and the Challenges of Building a Sovereign Social Network
byMichael Geist

August 10, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
Is Compromise on Encryption Possible? Why Bill C-22’s “Minor Opening” Leaves the Central Question Unanswered
The Wrong Target: Why the CBC Should Be Asking About the Yom Kippur Protesters, Not the Journalist Who Reported on Them
Buried in Bill C-39: The Enabling Digital Trade Act Brings Canada Its First Federal Electronic Trade Documents Law
A Definition That Meets the Moment: Federal Government Recognizes Antisemitism Includes Anti-Zionism
Nobody Can Say They Weren’t Warned: Canada’s Threat Assessments Predicted the Belleville Yom Kippur Attack

By comparison…
160 billion won converts to approximately 170 million in US dollars. However, the U.S. economy is roughly 15 times large (GDP) than Korea.
By this measure, the cost to the U.S. pubishers of term extension was about $2.5 billion dollars.